Three dealers were today starting a 20-year jail term for peddling heroin on the streets of Tyneside.

Northumbria Police's operation to tackle a drugs racket centred on Newcastle's West End led to the jailing of the four main players.

As well as losing their liberty, they were also hit hard in their pockets, when an order was made by the court that they surrender nearly £200,000 cash they made from trade.

The money will be used by police to plough back into the fight against crime.

Det Insp Dave Hall, from the force's Crime Team South, said: "This was a very professional operation involving a large amount of drugs being brought into the region. The money we recovered was ordered to be forfeited to the police which means the force can use the money in its continuing fight against drug crime."

On Monday, at Newcastle Crown Court, Robert Blackburn, 56, of Hallow Drive, Throckley, was sentenced to 10 years for conspiracy to supply class A drugs and money-laundering.

John Nixon, 32, of Salters Close, Gosforth, was given six years for conspiracy to supply class A drugs.

And John Wright, 40, of West Road, Newcastle, received four years for firearms offences and money laundering. Another member of the gang, Steven Loxley, 44, of St Ives Way, Newcastle, was given nine months for money laundering.

The investigation, which lasted almost two years, was led by Crime Team South and focused on the supply of heroin in the west end of Newcastle.

Surveillance showed Blackburn and Nixon regularly visiting a house in the Throckley area and when police raided it they found a kilo of heroin, with a street value of £86,000.

Blackburn and Nixon acted as wholesalers involved in securing large quantities of heroin for distribution in the area.

Wright and Loxley ran safe-houses where large amounts of cash were kept.

Officers searched Wright's house and found £105,000 in cash and a loaded firearm and in Loxley's property was £88,000 cash.